Main content

Batteries

Amit and Charlotte investigate the history of batteries and in the process expose some electrifying and shocking truths about their impact on the environment.

Batteries are everywhere in modern society. They’re in our phones, laptops and cars, or inside the classics - like torches, portable radios, or TV remotes. They’re inside drones probing deep beneath the ocean or providing juice to the Mars rover.

In an electrifying episode of All Consuming, Amit Katwala and Charlotte Williams explore the history of the energy storage devices that changed the world.

We check in with the curator of contemporary Science at the Science Museum, Dr Sophie Wearing, to learn about the unlikely origin of the term β€œbattery” and the early uses of energy storage. We also we get up to speed with Electric Vehicle Batteries with the Faraday Institution’s chief scientist, Sir Peter Bruce. Battery recycler Sam Haig deconstructs lithium-ion battery recycling and, to get the bigger picture, we hear from pumped-storage hydro expert Alex Campbell.

A Whistledown production for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

Available now

25 minutes

Last on

Thu 6 Oct 2022 12:32

Broadcast

  • Thu 6 Oct 2022 12:32

Podcast